Friday, April 27, 2012

The Threshing Floor of Worship by Amanda Leonard

The Threshing Floor of Worship

By Amanda Leonard

This
past Sunday I had a vision during a time of intense prayer and
worship. I saw this person who was worshipping the Lord. Out of
nowhere came this rubber-like substance that covered this person and
began to try and smother this person. This person couldn't breathe and
was panicking. Then the Lord blew His breathe on this "thing," and it
turned to glass. The Lord handed this person a rod, and He said, "BREAK
IT!!!" He said, "I've given you the authority, so BREAK IT!!!" This
person took the rod and drew it back and burst this 'thing' into a
million pieces. Then there was no longer any space between this person
and the Lord. This "thing" that had tried to smother and take out the
person was broken and this person entered into the glory of God; His
presence was felt like never before.

So this week as I've been in
the word, God keeps bringing up the threshing floor and how it relates
to worship. I know that I'm not a bible scholar and that I have so much
to learn but I know that God is putting this in my spirit not just for
me but for others as well. I know that if God can use me, He can use
anyone because I'm just a slave for my King. I'm an uneducated laid
down lover, and that's all I know. So I pray that the Holy Spirit takes
over, and that these aren't my words, but His. If anything written is
of me, Lord, I pray that it doesn't cause confusion and that it won't
even be remembered. Amen.

Threshing floors were used to separate
grain from the chaff at harvest time. First, the cut stalks of grain
were spread over the threshing floor and a sledge was pulled over the
stalks by oxen. This would break the heads of grain from the stalks.
Then the broken stalks were tossed into the air. The lighter chaff
would blow to the side, while the heavier grain would fall back onto the
floor; then the grain could be gathered. The threshing floor is a
place where good is separated from bad, true from false, usually a place
of judgment.

The threshing floor is also a picture of worship. David was told by the Lord to build an altar on the threshing floor.

2
Chronicles 3:1 KJV: "Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD
at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah, where the LORD appeared unto David his
father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshing floor of
Ornan the Jebusite."

When we enter into worship, we enter into a time of "threshing."

Micah 4:12 NLT says, "But
they do not know the Lord's thought or understand His plan. These
nations don't know that He is gathering them together to be beaten and
trampled like sheaves of grain on a threshing floor."

Micah
4:1: "In the last days, the mountain of the Lord's house will be the
highest of all-the most important place on earth. It will be raised
above the other hills, and people from all over the world will stream
there to worship."

With
what God has been showing me through recent visions is that He is
raising up people who FIRST will worship recklessly abandoned, THEN His
glory comes and will transform the earth. We sometimes, maybe unintentionally, "worship" the glory instead of the One from whom the glory flows.

Psalm
72:18-19: "Praise the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone does such
wonderful things. Praise his glorious name forever! Let the whole earth
be filled with his glory." God wants there to be no space between us and
Him.

I believe that we, me included, have at some point in time worshipped other things besides Him.

Exodus 34:14" Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God."

Hosea
9:1: "For you have been unfaithful to your God, bring yourselves out
like prostitutes, worshipping other gods on every threshing floor. "

God calls it "adultery" or "playing the harlot" (Ezek 23:37). Many
times we are too worried about other things to truly lay it all down to
worship, or we worship these other things; whether it be pride,
arrogance, fear, materialistic things, sin, unrepentant hearts, un
forgiveness, styles, traditions, our way of thinking, disunity, worldly
things.....etc....the list could go on and on of things that can prevent
us from entering into that Holy communion with God.

So what
is God wanting from us? I truly believe that God is preparing a harvest
of worshippers who are willing to go through the "threshing." Those
who are willing to be "beaten" or "winnowed" until nothing is left but
the good, the holy, the pure worship unto the Lord. God is saying, "I
want pure hearts, humble hearts." Ones who don't just worship me on
Sunday mornings but those who offer worship every second, of every
minute, of every day.

He
is looking for those who are willing to become like this broken piece
of wheat. God is restoring this pure unadulterated worship.

Isaiah
57-15: "The high and lofty one who lives in eternity, the Holy One,
says this: I live in the high and holy place with those whose spirits
are contrite and humble. I restored the crushed spirit of the humble and
revive the courage of those with repentant hearts."

Psalm 24:3-6 NIV: 3)
Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place?
4) He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his
soul to an idol or swear by what is false. 5) He will receive blessing
from the Lord and vindication from God his Savior. 6) Such is the
generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob."

Psalm
51:15-17 NIV: 15) O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your
praise. 16) You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do
not take pleasure in burnt offerings. 17) The sacrifices of God are a
broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

God is asking, "Are you willing to go to the threshing floor?"
Are you willing to let God purify you, and are you willing to break
those things that have created this space between you and God?

He
is ready, but we have to be willing. Just like in the vision, we have
to be the one to break it.....God is there just cheering us on! He is
telling us to break it, because He wants to get closer to us.

We
need to break our ideas of what we think worship should look like.
Worship may look different for each person, but the main question is,
"are we giving God EVERYTHING?" Is there something between us and Him
that is smothering us and trying to kill us? That's what the enemy
wants. He wants for us to become distracted with other things.

These
"things" will eventually choke the life out of us, because the very
essence of life flows from the Spirit of God. Whatever the enemy can
bring in to cause us to lose our focus, he will do to distract us from
the King of Kings. Our worship should be as it is in heaven; worship
lifts our perspective from the earthly to the heavenly. We should be
supernatural beings having human experiences instead of humans having
supernatural experiences.

Ephesians 2:6 NIV: "And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus".

Revelation
4:9-11 NIV: 9) Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and
thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives forever and ever, 10)
the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and
worship him who lives forever and ever. They lay their crowns before
the throne and say: 11) You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive
glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will
they were created and have their being.

Please Visit Canadian Prophetic Voice

Ministry Friends

Patricia Hamel is but one of many Canadian prophetic voices God has raised up for such a time as this.
She is His gift to the body of Christ and has a deep hunger for the body of Christ to become mature sons and daughters of the Lord.
She is a servant of the Lord willing to stand in the gap for her Nation of Canada, the United States of America and the nations of the earth. The nation of Israel is on her heart and it is with this heart that she ministers. It is out of relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ that she speaks the Word of The Lord.First and foremost our ministry needs to be to the Lord and then to others.

Bible Gateway

Ephesians 4:11-13

11And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

Amos 3:7

7Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

Pray

1 Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 1 Tim. 2:1-4 (NKJV)

Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge.1 Cor. 14:29

3Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.Jer. 33:3